16 THE CREATION OF MATTER 



of elements are metals. They number over fifty. The 

 particles belonging to them can all be put into one class, 

 and called by one name. They have the same nature, 

 the same metallic lustre. Gases, liquids, and solids have 

 their respective temperatures and pressures, at which 

 they are gases, liquids, and solids. 



The number of atoms existing. A cubic inch of a 

 perfect gas, when the barometer marks 30 and the 

 thermometer stands at 32, contains 10 23 molecules, 

 i.e. a hundred thousand million billion, and in certain 

 cases that means two or three or four or more times as 

 many atoms. A cubic inch of water gives 1800 cubic 

 inches of steam, i.e. water in the gaseous form, and, 

 therefore, to obtain the number of molecules in every 

 cubic inch of water, we must multiply 10 23 by 1800, and 

 as there are two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen in 

 the molecule of steam, we must multiply that product by 

 three. "We thus reach the conclusion that there are 

 hundreds of billions of billions in a cubic inch of water. 

 In the feeblest spring and tiniest well, in the Don's 

 f ountainhead, where, with a small vessel, you may quench 

 your thirst, how many are there ? In the springs and 

 rills and streams that feed it, how many 1 In all earth's 

 rivers, lakes, seas, and oceans the numbers are over- 

 whelmingly vast. The smallest amount of matter that 

 can be seen by the microscope contains from 60 to 

 100 million molecules. In our persons, in our houses, 

 in a great city, in a molehill, in a round mound, in a 

 ridge of mountains, the multitudes go far beyond num- 

 bers that can be named. To set down the numbers in 

 the earth would need not a page but a field of paper. 

 But the telescope has made known to us that the sun, 

 moon, and stars, which to the naked eye seem so small, 

 are mighty globes, and some of them so large that the 



